The Liturgical Press
A global business rooted in 90 years of Collegeville tradition
The Liturgical press, a publishing company located perfectly in the mix of Saint John’s campus, just steps from the universities student’s and Lake Sagatagan, was started over 90 years ago. In 1926 a monk, Virgil Michel, began the business with the start of Worship magazine, which is still published today. With some expansions, their mission has stayed largely the same maintaining to, “publish the Good news of Jesus Christ through various media to deepen the faith and knowledge of a richly diverse church.”
While the Press is fairly small on a scale of all publishers, in the niche community of Catholic Publishing companies, they run with the big dogs. The staff of 40 produce close to 30,000 pages of writing yearly (roughly 100 titles) not including other ventures such as their app Give Us This Day which includes daily prayers, readings, and reflections.
The liturgical press is owned under The Saint John’s Abbey and continuously engages with the Benedictine values in everyday work and life. The press believes that this Benedictine spirit is what makes them unique from other publishers. The Press has maintained a relationship with the university as well, commonly having both undergraduate and graduate student interns in editorial and IT.
With a goal of staying relevant to a wide variety of Catholics and shaping modern parish life, the press considers more “cutting edge” material; recently publishing 9 volumes of a series that examines every book of the bible from a feministic approach. These 9 are the first of 58 volumes to be printed, 6 per year. They’ll also publish writings surrounding architecture, psychology and various other topics as long as it falls under the umbrella of faith and the Catholic Church culture.
Editor, Hans Christoffersen, says this of their publishing style, "Given our mission we don’t always publish material because we know it will be a big seller, but rather because it is necessary. We are not in business to only make money, but to make a difference."
The Liturgical Press is a campus gem at Saint John’s and Collegeville is very thankful for the contributions the global business has made to the community.
By Sarah Hansen '18